New Artist – New Song on Playlist

A fellow blogger, Alt of Bones of the Sky blog, has put up a video of a young man, Joe Pug, who is just starting his music career. I found the performance riveting! The lyrics to Hymn 101 are intense and thought provoking! I kept listening to it over and over. When I realized this I added it to the playlist. If you’d like to, you can find him on YouTube or there is a website for him here. To see and hear the video on Alt’s blog go here. Enjoy!

For Paschal

My friend Paschal loves music! So much that he catalogs his memory by his experiencing different performances and listening to songs as he travels and explores the world on his own unique path.

This past week I was looking for something to watch to unwind at 10:00 PM. All the favorite shows were caught up on, including American Idol, so I watched an old episode of America's Got Talent. The two videos that follow are by the duo I think should have won the competition. They are awesome and take old classical styling to a new level by making it their own with modern beats and rhythms. So enthralled was I with these musicians that I did a first, I downloaded the album. I just couldn't wait to get this one.

Paschal, hoping you love this as much as I do and enjoy seeing a couple of guys who spent 7 years playing in the New York subways making it big. Here are: Nuttin' But Stringz!

This first video is part of their performance at Duke University and serves to introduce them a bit.

This second video is what convinced me to buy the album. Enjoy!

Reasons to Smile

Whenever I meet with my Cursillo Reunion group and we talk about study I always direct my talk away from books and instead say, "I'm studying people." It's true! I do study folk. That's how I learn my best lessons in life. How to face disappointments, be kind to others, see things from new perspectives, and be a better servant are just a few of the skills I'm learning from others. All of that's important in life and I'm blessed that I've got friends who accept being studied and seem to consider me just as valuable as they are to me. Friends have been stepping up to the plate a lot lately.

The new friends I'm making at my Census job are turning out to be fine examples of how to act in an office. Many of them have been managers or people in responsible positions and all are team players. We all work together towards a common goal, teach each other what we learn, and cover each other when closing out our day and getting ready for the next. So what am I learning from them? Besides the afore mentioned, I'm also learning how to take things in stride, how to coordinate things, and how to get good advice when needed. More subtle skills include tact, faith, and belief in a common goal.

One of my work friends, a very nice fellow named Kevin, has taken my poor job search skills and done his best to improve them with some well place instructions. He sat down with me over lunch one day, looked at my USA Jobs resume, and told me how to improve it to get a better shot at being hired by our government when I go looking for a new job. He pointed me towards OPM.gov which has handbooks for all the jobs listed on in the "job families/series" on USAJobs.gov and told me to match my job experience descriptions to the key words used to describe the skills used for the job I was trying for. That kind of advice was amazingly helpful! When I went to the site I had a general idea and instructions to do a "series search". I actually searched for those terms and learned about job families. Then I checked out the areas I had knowledge and experience in. I found 2 different jobs I can have a decent chance at by rewriting my resume, so that's my plan! I hadn't realized how varied resumes could be. That's something else I've picked up on this job. Apparently civilian ones are a page or two in length max, but the government job ones are several more pages with detailed descriptions of tasks you've mastered and experiences you've had. Whew! I always had a problem with writing short descriptions. Writing detailed ones should be a piece of cake. Oh! And they extended me at work so I'm employed by the Census for another 2 months! Yay!

Today I was headed to Target to buy a new watch and also Home Depot to get a new lamp. Instead I took a side trip to my friend Jerry's house, partly because he was on the way and could give me advice on whether I should buy a new lamp or fix the old one and also, because I hadn't seen him in a while and missed his company. Jerry and his family took me to their hearts long ago and have become my best resources for many things. If I need a house sitter or cat feeder I call them. If I'm going to the hospital for a procedure they are the ones to sit in the waiting room and drive me home afterward. They are also my emergency contacts and have permission to speak in my behalf if medical issues arise. It makes lots of sense. Jerry's an experienced OR nurse, knows my other friends with medical expertise, and would be able to ask questions that I wouldn't know to think of. They keep 10 cats and have taken care of mine by staying for several hours just to play with them when I've had occasion to travel.

When I stepped into Jerry's place he was relaxing with a book. I described my lamp problem and asked if I could fix it. He asked Susan if she needed him and got permission to go with me to my place where he proceeded to take the lamp apart. Discovering that the socket had gone bad, we drove to Target, followed by Home Depot to get the needed part to fix the lamp. While out running around we managed to get my watch replaced and a couple of very necessary belts of decent quality purchased. (My wardrobe is taking wear and tear now that I'm working 5 days a week.) Once back home the lamp got fixed, the windshield fluid in the car was topped off, bottles were recycled, and I had new CFL bulbs for most of the lights and a new R type bulb for the lamp. Then he played with the cats, or at least Hyram. Hooboo doesn't really trust anyone but me yet. A little later, I drove Jerry back to his place and borrowed a few books and a new computer game. I've promised to return tomorrow so that I can help them organize their myriad books. They need this badly because they are the best lending library I know and finding what they want to lend me is a whole house search project at present.

Earlier this morning, I popped over to my friend San's blog and then visited her friend Bob T Bear Esq. who was having a 500th post celebration. That was fun and I hope to share some of the jokes from his site with my friends at work. San has meant a lot to me as a friend because she started by making herself at home in my blog. She'd never met me, started reading and stayed and read and kept coming back till I think she has read every post I've ever written. In the process we became friends and I started learning how to love abstract art. I'd always been very much a realist and fantasy art lover till I met San. Now I'm seeing things in her work that I'd never have expected to. It's like visions just pop up for me when I look at something she's painted. Wow!

One of the things I shared with Jerry while he was watching Hyram eat was the start of my writing portfolio. David had a hand in that. In fact, I think it wouldn't have been started without his support. I also ran the articles I pulled from this blog past another new work friend. She said they were good too, but pointed out that if I wanted to be a technical writer I needed to write some technical articles. That makes sense. So I have to figure out a good "How To" article to put in there. Or describe a process that I'm familiar with that uses technology. She suggested blogging. I'm not so sure about that but there has to be something I can talk about and describe step by step. So I guess that somewhere in and around my rewriting my resume I need to write a couple more articles.

Well I don't think this article is turning out as I'd intended. It's become a ramble whose whole point seems to be that you can't survive without friends and that I've got some really great ones. But when Jerry and I were driving around we talked about disappointments in life. People often disappoint each other. Sometimes they hurt you very badly in the process. One can lose faith in other people if you hurt them often or badly enough. I've seen several examples of this during my life. The result seems to be that they lose faith in establishments, authorities, and powers too...including God. When Jerry and I are together we can seem like opposite sides of the coin. He's gloom and doom and I'm joy and light, but it wasn't always this way and I remember fondly the man who could convincingly make believe he was Merlin. So I talked about the need to forgive or just let things go. Granted, I'm not always good at that, but eventually I have to come around to that because I am, at heart, an optimist. I want a rosy tinted outlook and I'll move heaven and earth to get it. I wish I could gift that view to all my friends and anyone in need of a better feel about life because I think that without it I would have been a very unhappy teenager and possibly become a statistic of the worst sort. When I was just a kid my mother and I coined the label "Pollyannas" for ourselves signifying that we wanted to find something to be happy about in any situation, just like Pollyanna did in that Disney movie. So help me, it stuck! And I've never once looked back. In fact I resent any effort to teach me better. Life has a way of doing that despite our best efforts, so I can't claim that I'm totally unscathed, but I know things are getting better when I can share the smile that in my 20's earned me the nickname "Sunshine" and find time to appreciate the goodness of those around me. Thank goodness for friends! So yeah, let's smile! Just like the song!

The 7 Unusual Things About Me Tag

As I told San when she tagged me for this, I've spent more time trying to fit in and be usual than unusual. So this is going to be a bit awkward as I dredge through years of personal history to find 7 things. Some of them may not be that unusual.

1) For the 3 months after I was born I would not allow myself to be put down. If my Mother, Grandmother, or Grandfather tried I screamed until someone picked me up again. During this period Dad went off to fight in the Korean War. Can you imagine the round the clock shifts of parenting this took to keep me calm? Guess it was a good thing I was born in the upstair bedroom of Grandmother's house. There were loving arms ready to help Mom survive her post natal stressor, me.

2) Because I was cross eyed as a child I never developed depth perception. Not even after corrective surgery in 5th & 6th grades. My eyes work independantly of one another and my brain ignores the one not pointed directly at the object I'm looking at. So it goes off to look to the side. That affects peripheral vision too. I have less than the normal range. This makes many things more difficult. I'm terrible at most sports, especially those involving balls moving towards me. But for marksmanship it works out pretty well as you only use one eye to sight along a rifle barrel.

3) When I was in elementary school, this would have been in 5th grade, I became a human ball. I was so slender and light that the other kids would gather around me, pick me up, and throw me from one group to another. Or toss me in the air and watch me land. I got pretty good at using my legs as springs to take up the shock.

4) When I went through bootcamp I was happy and at peace with my world for the first time. That sounds weird even to me. Bootcamp is supposed to be hard and often a miserable experience. Instead I knew exactly what was expected of me and that worked so well for me that I found myself mentally singing happy songs while marching in formation.

5) My voice has a much greater range than I can actually use when performing with the choir. It all depends on who I'm following and how relaxed I am. When following a soprano I can sing most of the way up to the top of second soprano. When following the altos I have the full range now, that wasn't the case as a teenager in high school. When I have a really strong tenor voice right beside me I can now follow him partway down into that range. I've even tackled some of the higher bass notes. I discovered I could do this while singing along with the choir director at Krueger Middle School. Even he was impressed.

6) I tried out for a broadway style musical in college by singing a Korean War Song. It was Hut Sut Ralston on the Rillarah. The director was amazed and I got a part in the chorus. Here's a video clip from the Fibber & Molly Magee show of a quartet singing it.

7) I know songs from 4 wars. That probably isn't that unusual for people my age but I think it is kind of interesting. My grandparents taught me WWI songs, including Good Morning Mr. Zip. My Dad taught my sister and me stuff from WWII and the Korean War. I grew up during the Vietnam War so all those popular numbers from Hello Vietnam were familiar. And now I guess I have to add songs from a 5th war to my musical repertoir, the War on Terrorism. Who doesn't know that song by Toby Keith, Couresy of the Red, White, & Blue.

Busy Doings at Church

Thursday of this week my verger training materials arrived. These consisted of a nice notebook with eight sections and a booklet depicting verger robes and virges. I'll probably have to get a robe at some point or the church will order one for me. The Verger Guild of the Episcopal Church (VGEC) provides you with a virge when you pass the test and are officially ready to be a verger. A virge is a staff with a finial on it. According to history it was sometimes used for battle but that was the business end of it. The pomp & circumstance end has a decorative and symbolic ornamentation that leads the way for the procession of the church on some of the more formal occasions. One uses it ceremonially to symbolically "clear the way." Are you wondering if you've ever seen a verger in action? Well, if you watched President Ford's funeral you saw one leading preachers and speakers to the podium.

While my church formally uses our verger in the processions at Easter and Advent he is usually active in the background at every service. I suspect that there are some churches where the verger takes part in every procession. I'm not sure but I think it might have to do with how "high church" your services are. Ours aren't that high, but they are getting more so. We just added in torch bearers to the entrance procession. The first two were very young and SO excited to be involved in a responsible activity. They did just beautifully despite their near wavering with excitement.

Anyway, back to the training materials. The moment I opened them I fired off a letter to Ted, our verger, and Robert, our rector, to let them know they'd arrived and asking when the first training session would be held. Then I sat down and read through the first 3 sections. Flipping through it in preparation for writing this post, I noticed there were some questions at certain points which no doubt require an answer. Between now and the first training I'll probably google for the answers, or go over and sit in the church library for a bit.

There is a reading list for training which we can read or read only sections. Robert and Ted had gotten together and have purchased a copy of the ones Ted said were the most used/useful. Robert emailed us all later that evening and those books are now in the church library. We'll have to take turns with them. Did I tell you that we are training four vergers? That seems a huge leap from one. Robert says there are all kinds of uses they envision for us. I hope so. I can already think of at least one service I want to be actively involved in next year.

As if that wasn't busy making enough, the choir, which I joined recently, is gearing up for several big services. There's our Lessons & Carols, All Saint's Day, the Ordination of our associate pastor, our 40th Anniversary celebration, and Advent. We've added in quite a few songs to our music notebooks recently including the glorious River Song from "O' Brother, Where Art Thou?" This past Wednesday we added in some numbers sung to us earlier this year by SAVAE at the concert they gave in our sanctuary. Those two songs are not in my native tongue so I'm really glad Cindy, our choir director, is starting us on them early. Now if only I had the lyrics printed out so that I could sing along with the songs on the CD I have of them. I couldn't find clips of the ones we are singing, but have a listen to SAVAE on the YouTube video below. They're singing Asi Andando.



We're also starting to hold planning meetings for our 40th Anniversary to be celebrated the week following Matt's ordination. December is going to be a busy month! The conundrum for me is the first planning meeting is being held during choir practice. I want to attend both and sadly am not endowed with the self replicating talents of Triplicate Girl. So I need to decide which is more important, practice with the choir and get socialization at the same time, or attend the meeting and be in on the planning from the start.

My All Time Favorite Music Video

Where's the screen? Sorry, I couldn't embed this one. It's the real thing and YouTube cooperated with the publishing company.

Way back in the 1990 I started taking ballroom dance lessons. I was so excited about getting good at all kinds of dancing. I was exploring all kinds of music and MTV was the big thing in music TV. This video was the first music video I ever recorded. It's Paula Abdul when she was much younger and a cute cartoon sidekick dancing across the screen to Opposites Attract. If you want to watch my all time favorite music/dance video you can see it here. Enjoy!

For Paschal

With a single paragraph my good friend Paschal, over at Murat11, pointed me towards a writer who is as fascinating as the stories she writes and as imaginative as the words she uses. Muchas gracias, mi amigo!

And for my friends who also write, JS, Alt, Sandi, San, David, Jeni, Susan, and the list could go on and on, "Please sit for awhile and listen to this fascinating story read by its author, Aimee Bender, and take note of anything she says that you might find helpful."

As JS commented on the Randy Pausch lecture, I watched the whole thing, takes about 50 minutes. Worth it!

New Songs Added - Sixteen Tons

Three new numbers got added to the playlist today. While looking for On a Clear Day, I found The Summer Knows by Streisand. That's a pretty seductive number. Among the list of different versions was a duet of her and Michael Crawford singing Music of the Night. It was good but I wanted the original London cast recording. That's one awesome piece of vocal music. I also wanted something really old, so I went looking for Tennessee Ernie Ford and found him singing Sixteen Tons.

That one takes me back to my very early childhood. Our family has a home movie of my younger cousin Annie Laurie singing the chorus to Sixteen Tons. Imagine, a little blond girl with a milk weed in her hand singing "ooh ooh ooh muscle and blood." She couldn't have been more than 4 at the time. When I was taking a US history class at college a couple of years ago I learned why the song was sung. What it describes are the atrocious living conditions of miners who were literally bound by debt to the company that they worked for. The company paid for everything, even their preachers. So what do you think the preachers preached about? Company loyalty of course. The business practices the mine owners followed hasn't been an uncommon throughout history. I think I remember something related to geisha training being similar. But it worries me that in some places people might still be living like that despite improved labor laws. I found the first video easily enough but this second one took me back. What it shows is what the song was talking about. Hope you've got time to watch them both.

That's quite a difference isn't it? :-|

On a Clear Day

"What song brings you the best memories?" was David's question for today's Weekend Wandering. I couldn't have told you until I read the responses already posted. Retired and Crazy sent us to listen to "I Can See Clearly Now" and that reminded me of how much a Barbra Streisand movie had caught my imagination. Way back in 1970 I fell in love with "On a Clear Day". That movie was so exciting! It took me through a lot of different mindsets. I was young, just into college, and kind of identified with Daisy Gamble (lead female role). It appealed to my love of history, of the dramatic (Melinda Tentrees was certainly that!), and a curiosity about psychic phenomena. It was also funny, romantic, wonderfully musical, and inspiring. Best of all, it opened me up to dreams of being more than I thought I was.

When looking for a video, I couldn't find a decent clip from the movie. That's okay, I like this one, from Barbara's 1994 concert, better. She took the time to talk about the meaning behind the song. That appeals to me. What she thinks about it also fits with what I've been learning about life and happiness these past few years. So you won't see Barbara in that cute orange dress and white hat running through the gardens. Instead you'll see the mature, happier, and wiser woman she has grown to be. Which is wonderful, even if (as she said) it took her many hours on a sofa and a ton of money to get there. :) Guess which movie just moved to the top of my shopping list?

Enjoy!

Sandi Liked This One!

Because my good friend Sandi likes this one, and I knew I'd be going to You Tube to find something of George's to embed for you, here's his "Stuff" routine. It's totally funny! Enjoy!

First Sources are a Treasure

A picture of my dad as a young man from the 100th Bomb Group website.

Both my father and my grandfather fought in World Wars. Granddad fought in WWI and Dad fought in WWII and the Korean War. While I was growing up I gathered in bits and pieces of historical lore and popular songs from those times as part of being a loved child.

Songs were usually just fun for me when I was a kid. Dad used to play his ukulele for my sister and me at bedtime. He taught us to sing American folk songs and some military numbers along with those funny popular songs that people come up with when times are hard. Lots of times I didn't know what I was getting. So it was a huge surprise to me when I auditioned for a college musical by singing "Hut Sut Rawlson on the Rillerah" and learned from the director that it was a Korean War song. Here's a video in black & white of it that I got off of You Tube.



Granddad passed on when I was still a young woman. I wish I'd had more time to gather in his memories. He was a great story teller. Dad however, is doing a fine job of telling his own stories. He's writing his memories of WWII pilot training and some of his "missions" during the war on the font of information that the guys from the 100th Bomb Group (home page link) have set up. I'm really proud of my dad and all his accomplishments. So I've included a link to the website in my sidebar under Friend's Blogs. Hope you all will visit and read his stories. You'll find his memories and some others listed there. Dad's are the ones written by Bill Kennedy. There's a place for comments there so why not leave him or the other veterans a word and tell them how much you appreciate their service and their value to correct history as told by the people who lived it.

For Sandi

Sandi McBride and I found sisterhood in our love of the same music and movies. Yesterday she posted about her love of Mel Brooks movies and Madelynn Kahn singing "I'm Tired" in "Blazing Saddles". I've enjoyed that movie several times so I went looking for a video of the song on trusty old YouTube. Success! Enjoy!!!

There'll Be Some Changes Made...

Hope you enjoyed that wonderful rendition of an oldie but goodie. This post is to let you know that some changes are about to be made to this blog. A totally new look is coming. Lots of work went into it's creation, so the changes may come in stages (for those quick enough to catch them). But, thanks to the wonderful skills of Terry....there'll be some changes made. And I for one think they are gonna be awesome! Hope you all agree.

Response to Sandi's "Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette"

That was one great post Sandi did. I loved that she is supporting good health and decrying a seriously addictive and unhealthy habit. Even more, I loved the trek down memory lane that her use of the song lyrics took me on. When I was attending San Marcos Academy and in my senior year, all the seniors would go over to the headmaster's house and have social gatherings. One of us was really good at the piano and would play popular songs for us to sing. I'm sure Headmaster Doncaster and his wife liked it as much as we did. One of our more popular numbers was the song, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette" which was made popular by Tex Williams. Since Sandi brought the lyrics up I thought it might be nice to let you all hear the whole song. So I culled it from YouTube. Enjoy! And if you smoke, please stop!

Everything Old is New Again!

Bouncing from blog to blog I read a couple of ladies talking about Michael Buble. Didn't know who he was but they were raving about him, calling him romantic and gorgeous. So of course I had to find out about this rave. YouTube provided the video and sounds very nicely. What I like about this guy is that he is singing stuff I grew up on. Yes! I find it VERY romantic! Even better, he makes these "oldies" sound current and very "today!" I can hardly wait to tell my family about this guy and how the songs we used to sing together are now new again and popular. So, sharing the newest thing to become a passion in my musical world. Here is Michael Buble singing, "Everything."

Taking It To a New Level

My father used to play the ukulele. He was pretty good at it and many nights he would sit at the foot of my sister's and my twin beds and play for us. We would sing along and learned many songs from my father as he passed on a musical legacy. As my sister and I got older we picked up guitars and Dad switched over to that instrument to keep us company. We had some really great family music sessions when I was a teenager.

Since I'm going home for Christmas I'm taking my guitar with me. My father has declared that he has no idea where his baritone ukulele is and I think he gave away his guitar. So I'm also taking a second guitar.

While goofing around on the computer I decided to check out YouTube and see if there were any ukuleles being played these days. As it turned out there are tons of them. There are even ukulele orchestras in Europe. I listened to a few and then found this one very excellent duet by a couple of guys. The piece is an original of their own design. If you keep an eye on the guy on the left you will see that he not only plays the ukulele well, he plays it like a classical artist. So here you go with a really nice ukulele duet. Enjoy!

Only Five Months Away

At Christmas last year, I wrote a post called "The perfect Christmas list." In it I quoted "Grown Up Christmas List," which I first heard sung by the awesome Amy Grant. I also said I couldn't give you her to listen to and linked you instead to Kelly Clarkson singing it on YouTube. Well, it turns out I was wrong. As shown above, I can indeed give you Amy Grant singing Grownup Christmas List.

While exploring YouTube, I discovered just how popular this song is. Clay Aiken performs it. Other singers perform it. I even found an anime video pieced together from other anime videos with this song as the guiding theme. It seems the lyrics express sentiments that everyone wants to profess and support.

Well, I've always been one to think of Christmas early. As the title reminds us, it's only 5 months away. My end of year looks bright. Completing my teacher certification will bring about many significant changes in my life and I'm very happy about this. So, please enjoy hearing "Grown Up Christmas List," sung by my favorite performer, Yes in August, as we head towards my favorite holiday and a bright future.

As happened last time I embedded a YouTube video in a post, there will be a host of other related versions for you to click on and listen to after the Amy Grant video has played. Enjoy!

How to ressurect an old skill

A long, long time ago, before I was married, I played the guitar. No, not like the guy in the video above. Isn't he awesome? That's Funtwo and he's a professional, from Korea I think. My playing was for personal pleasure. Sometimes when fellow amateur guitar friends and I would get together it became social but mostly it was for my own enjoyment and primarily folk songs. A large part of my family sings and plays too, so it was used at family gatherings. Once I gained my faith it became a method of prayer. As I said, this was before I was married.

Once I got married, my ex was a huge stumbling block to practice. His method of de-stressing was to have a TV constantly running. At no time in our marriage was there ever total silence at home. This was true in the apartments we lived in and also in the house we eventually bought. When there is a constant din of noise in the background it's hard to tune a guitar never mind practicing for any concentrated period of time. Eventually, rather than fight about it, I stopped practicing. Why would I ever do something so foolish? Because that was the image I had of being a good wife. Now days, I know better!

Jump ahead to 7 years after the end of that marriage and there are still some things I'm trying to recover of the me I loved before I met him. One of them is my guitar playing. So how do I go about getting this loving practice back again? Well, first I got the guitar out of the closet and put it on a stand where I could see it daily. Then I got it some new strings and tuned it. And re-tuned it. And re-tuned it again. Not liking the results of what I stumblingly tried to play on it, I decided I needed a song that would inspire me to want to learn once again. There are quite a few web sites out there that publish free guitar tabs for anyone who wants them. I started downloading tabs of songs I liked. I didn't play them. I just printed them out. Now I have a whole 3-inch loose leaf notebook that is full of them.

Here is where it gets a little fuzzy for me. I'm not sure exactly what happened but, I'm seeing a PC, I have a good friend who is wonderfully encouraging, my dreams are being productive, and I'm starting to look at myself somewhat differently. So when my church held a silent auction to raise funds to support adult education there, and one of the items was 5 half hour guitar lessons from our summer seminarian, I bid on it. When I told my friend about it she bravely said, "If you don't win it we can challenge each other to learn new songs on our guitars." Seems she's had one for several years and doesn't play it like she thinks she should either. That was really wonderful of her and I may take her up on it. But I didn't stop bidding. I kept telling myself I really needed those lessons. After all, I learn best in a classroom setting with deadlines and goals to meet. So when someone outbid me I'd raise my bid too. Before the auction closed I had bid 4 times on that prize. And I won. It cost me a bit more than I had intended, but I'm telling myself that the Holy Spirit is using it for the church and it will help me and others grow. And in preparation for winning it, even before the bidding closed, I took all those tabs I'd downloaded and put them in a notebook. I also took out an old book designed to teach guitar to the dedicated beginner and started practicing from it. Then I moved on to other songs I had saved from years ago.

Its showing. My fingering is starting to get better. So is my strumming and plucking. I'm preparing myself for the first class which will take place next week. Hopefully I will be practiced enough that I won't embarrass myself too much. Even if I'm not where I think I should be by next Thursday, I know that the young man who is our summer seminarian is a warm and caring person. I'm pretty sure he won't make fun of me and he'll probably have lots of empathy about my efforts to regain my music skills. And I'll bet he'll really like that version of Pachelbel's Cannon that Funtwo plays up above. Enjoy!